(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Indians 301: Canadian First Nations and Jacques Cartier, 1534 to 1542 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-19 During the sixteenth century France claimed a large portion of northern North America and designated it as New France. Jacques Cartier (1491-1567) was one of the early French explorers in this region. During his explorations he began using the term Canada (from the Huron word Kanata meaning “village” or settlement) in referring to the region. Prior to his explorations of Canada, Jacques Cartier had accompanied Giovanni da Verrazano in exploring the mid-Atlantic coast of North America in 1524 and in 1528. He then led three expeditions into Canada on behalf of the King of France. In 1534, Cartier explored the west coast of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, Anticosti Island, and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. During his second expedition in 1535-1536 the French spent the winter in the St. Lawrence River region where they made contact with the Iroquois-speaking Hurons from the towns of Stadacona and Hochelaga. Cartier made his third and final trip to Canada in 1541-1542. Briefly described below are some of the interactions between Cartier’s French expeditions and the Canadian First Nations. 1534, Micmac The Micmacs are an Algonquian-speaking people whose homelands included Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and parts of New Brunswick. Before the arrival of the French, they had probably encountered the Vikings. The Micmacs first encountered the French at Chaleur Bay. The Micmacs greeted his ship with two fleets of canoes, totaling 40-50 canoes in all. With so many Indians, Cartier was afraid to make contact and fired light artillery to frighten them away. The following day, nine canoes once again approached his ship. The Micmac held up furs showing that they wanted to trade and indicating that they had encountered Europeans before and knew what they wanted. Cartier sent two men ashore with knives and other iron goods and a brisk trade occurred. In some instances, the Indians literally traded the clothes they were wearing. 1534, Beothuk Prior to their encounter with Cartier’s French expedition, the Beothuks had been in contact with the Vikings (who called them Skraelings), with the 1497 English expedition of John Cabot, and with the 1523 French expedition of Giovanni da Verrazano. The Cartier expeditions had some limited contact with the Beothuk. Cartier described their practice of rubbing red ochre over their bodies, hair, clothing, and other items. This practice, which had been described by earlier explorers and fisherman, led to the description of American Indians as “red.” 1534, Huron The Huron were an Iroquoian-speaking people with permanent agricultural villages. The name Huron is from the Old French hure meaning “boar’s head” referring to the Huron warriors’ hair style. The people called themselves Wendat meaning “dwellers of the peninsula.” Cartier encountered a group of 300 Hurons at the Baie de Gaspé. The Hurons had come down the Saint Lawrence River from the present-day Quebec area to fish for mackerel. He noted that they slept underneath their overturned canoes and wore only breechcloths and a few skins over their shoulders. In his chapter on early Iroquoian contacts with Europeans in the Handbook of North American Indians, anthropologist Bruce Trigger reports: “They welcomed the French with songs and dances and were eager to get hold of the knives, combs, and other small articles that the French had with them—so eager, that the French described them as marvelous thieves.” The French took symbolic possession of the territory by raising a large cross on a little island in Gaspé Harbor. Some historians report that Chief Donnacona objected to this. History writer Ted Morgan, in his book Wilderness at Dawn: The Settling of the North American Continent, describes Chief Donnacona’s response: “Clad in a black bearskin, he went out to Cartier’s ship and harangued the navigator from his canoe, pointing to the cross and then to the ground, to make it very clear that the ground belonged to him, and that Cartier was a trespasser.” In their book Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America, Barbara Huck et al describe the meeting of the Iroquoians and the French this way: “They gave Cartier and his men a warm welcome, though only after hiding their young women in the forest, a telling indication they’d met Europeans before. And they clearly understood Cartier’s intent, if not his words, when he erected a large wooden cross bearing the inscription Vive le Roy de France.” Cartier attempted to tell Donnacona that the cross was simply a navigation marker. In her book On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe, Caroline Dodds Pennock reports: “Cartier systematically kidnapped Indigenous Stadaconans to serve as intermediaries.” Among those kidnapped by Cartier were two of the sons of the leader of the fishing party, Donnacona. Cartier took them back to France. Caroline Dodds Pennock writes: “The young men, named Taignoagny and Domagaya, spent just over eight months in France, learning some of the language, and witnessing enough of French life to understand the custom of baptism and to gain a clear sense of the accurate value of European goods (much to the irritation of Cartier).” With regard to the two Hurons who were taken back to France, Mason Wade, in his chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians, writes: “The glowing accounts provided by these Indians of the mythical kingdoms of Hochelaga, Stadacona, and Saguenay aroused French interest in the New World, for they suggested that North America might offer riches comparable to those of Mexico and Peru.” It is hard to say if the young men were deliberately misleading the French, or if the French were hearing what they wanted to hear. Cultural differences often lead to misinterpretation. While the Iroquois did not have kings and therefore did not have kingdoms, the French, like other Europeans, often assumed “kings” and “kingdoms” where none actually existed. Barbara Huck et al report: “What they told Cartier and his sponsors, including the king, was apparently enough to convince them to launch a larger expedition the following spring.” 1535 Cartier returned to Canada in 1535 with three ships. He intended to establish a colony which would remain on the land through the winter. He stopped at the Iroquois village of Stadacona where the city of Quebec would later be built. Here Donnaconna and his men paddled out to Cartier’s ship in 12 canoes and the chief’s sons were reunited with their people. Donnacona found out that the French planned to continue farther west to Hochelaga. Barbara Huck et al report: “Should Cartier establish relations there, Donnacona might easily be pushed aside from the role he planned for himself, that of liaison with the French and middleman in a lucrative trade.” Donnacona attempted to dissuade the French from contacting the Indian nations to the west. Barbara Huck et al write: “And quite truthfully he warned Cartier that his men might well perish during the looming winter if they shunned the protection of Stadacona.” Leaving most of his men to build a winter fort near Stadacona, Cartier and about three dozen men followed the St. Lawrence to the fortified Hochelaga village of Tutonaguy. A wooden palisade for defense enclosed the town and around the town were large fields of corn. This was a community of about 3,600 (some sources indicate 2,000 living in fifty longhouses). The French did not care for the Huron food – cornbread, beans, peas, and cucumbers – because it was not salted. In her chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 1: A New World Disclosed, historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman writes: “The Iroquois of Hochelaga were described as overlords over the Iroquoians of Canada, as well as eight or nine other nations.” While Cartier’s journal says that he was greeted like a god and treated like royalty, in reality the French probably received a fairly standard Iroquois greeting ceremony. Barbara Huck et al write: “Cartier and his men must have seemed very strange, with hair growing upon their pale faces and odd clothing covering their entire bodies, though summer was barely over.” The French were hoping to find gold and other riches and/or a passage to China. They found neither and noted that the great river was blocked by rapids. Barbara Huck et al write: “This was not, as he had hoped, his shortcut to China. Hugely outnumbered and feeling vulnerable, he beat a hasty retreat to Stadacona.” Upon returning to Stadacona, the Huron leader Donnacona offered Cartier and his men every hospitality, but Cartier insisted on building a French fort for security. During the winter, Cartier’s men became sick with scurvy. While the Stadaconans also became sick, the French noticed that the Indians recovered quickly. In desperation, Cartier asked the Stadaconans how they had healed themselves and was told that the leaves of a certain tree were the remedy for the disease. Asking for help for “a servant” (Cartier was reluctant to let the Iroquois know how many of his men were sick), the Indians showed him how to boil the bark and leaves of the tree. At first, the French refused to try the concoction, but after one or two finally tasted it and quickly improved, all of them took it. Within a few days, his men were better. With their herbal medicine, the Indians were apparently more advanced than the French. While Cartier reported that the healing tree was the Sassafras tree, Sassafras did not grow in that climate. Many people today feel that the tree was white pine, hemlock, or spruce. During the winter an unidentified European disease struck Stadacona and about 50 people died. 1536 When Cartier left for France in 1536, he kidnapped Donnacona and nine others. In his book Who Was Who in Native American History: Indians and Non-Indians From Early Contacts Through 1900, Carl Waldman reports: “Although first resisting, Donnaconna agreed to go to France when Cartier promised to return him to his homeland within a year. Donnaconna made a speech from the deck of the ship to his warriors, then sent them away.” In France, Donnaconna was presented to King Francis I. All of the Hurons who had accompanied Cartier to France contracted European diseases and died in France. 1541 In 1541, Cartier returned to the Hurons without the captives. Archaeologist Robert Grumet, in his book Historic Contact: Indian People and Colonists in Today’s Northeastern United States in the Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries, reports: “Angered by the French predilection for seizing people against their will, and outraged by the deaths of their kidnapped kinsfolk while in French hands, Saint Lawrence Iroquoian people restricted direct trade with French sailors to brief shipboard encounters along the river below Tadoussac until the later 1500s.” 1542 With regard to Cartier’s return to France, Carl Waldman, in his book Who Was Who in Native American History: Indians and Non-Indians From Early Contacts Through 1900, reports: “After further explorations of the region, Cartier returned to France in 1542, with a shipment of what he thought were precious gems and minerals, but which turned out to be worthless.” More Sixteenth-Century Histories Indians 101: Disease and Indians in the 16th Century Indians 201: Huron History, 1535 to 1648 Indians 201: Southwestern Indians and Fray Marcos de Niza Indians 201: Florida Indians and the Spanish, 1513 to 1527 Indians 101: The Zuni and the Spanish in the 16th Century Indians 101: Acoma Pueblo and the Spanish, 1539-1599 Indians 101: Early French Encounters With Indians Indians 101: Sixteenth Century European Laws About Indians [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/19/2199964/-Indians-301-Canadian-First-Nations-and-Jacques-Cartier-1534-to-1542?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/